A History of Violence

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[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

Movie weekend concludes with a solo trip to the theater to see this impressive flick. Ed Harris and William Hurt contribute their superior acting chops; Hurt in particular delivers an over-the-top performance that gets pretty funny. And Maria Bello delivers her usual hot mama bit. Viggo Mortenson, the protagonist, kind of watches it all go by without a lot of expression change.

The title has an interesting double meaning. One refers the supposition that the hero has had a violent past; the other lies is the more obscure use of "history" as an exploration of related phenomena: we see violence generated by many different situations and with many rationales.

On the other hand, it's pretty easy to watch it on the straightforward thriller level.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT

Saw

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[2.5 stars] [IMDb Link]

I saw Saw. Did you see Saw? So I saw Saw, sue me. Sigh. What can I say about Saw?

Well, a couple things: Cary Elwes looks worse in this movie alive than he did while being dead in The Princess Bride. The girl who played the ditzy receptionist in Becker (Shawnee Smith, I looked it up) plays a more serious part here; gosh, she can do more than play ditzy.

And, yes, it's all moody and icky and creepy. But I had a hard time buying the premise that an evil mastermind can really plot things out quite so meticulously. And when his hideous motivation is finally revealed, it's kind of hard to buy that too.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT

Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

[Amazon Link]
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[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

Movie weekend continues. Pun Daughter and I went to see this in the theater; I may have been the oldest person there. I'm pretty sure the average age was below 13.

But it was great fun. For a G-rated movie there are sure a lot of double entendres. But mostly just non-stop hilarity and sly cleverness.

It looks to me as if many of the human characters were designed with the late great Don Martin (MAD magazine illustrator) in mind; I haven't seen that mentioned elsewhere, though.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT